The Family Law Act passed in British Columbia last year has allowed a baby to have 3 parents named on her birth certificate. The 3 month old baby is the legal child of a lesbian couple and their male friend. The new legislation permits up to four parents to be named on a child’s birth certificate.

Anna Richard and her wife Danielle Wiley said “We wanted our kids to know where they came from biologically and actually liked the idea of having an extended family…It didn’t threaten us to have another person’s involvement so long as it was the right person.”

Whilst this is a first in British Columbia, in January, 2007, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that a young boy could have one legal father and two legal mothers, thus creating the first official three-parent family in Canada.